ADVANCE for Executive Insight 1 ADVANCE for Executive Insight

virtua health: by the numbers
4
hospitals
2
skilled nursing facilities
2
home care agencies
3
fitness centers
7
ambulatory surgical centers
250
employed physicians
12
paramedic units
8,000
babies delivered annually
8,500
employees
On the Web
For additional content
on staff engagement and
technology buy-in, go to
the “Executive Perspectives
for the Continuum
of Care” column at www.
advanceweb.com/executiveinsight
that we were protecting confidential patient information
related to health issues such as AIDS,
psychological conditions and other sensitive
health issues.
We then concentrated on growing the number
of participants tied into the information exchange.
After getting the initial participants into
the system, we started to recruit other physician
practices and labs into the HIE. The goal is to
have all of these providers not only tap into the
HIE’s portal-based repository, but also to share
their patient data via interoperable exchange
with their EHRs.
Becoming an ACO
Our adoption of HIE positioned Virtua well
for becoming an Accountable Care Organization
(ACO) under the Medical Shared Savings
Program, for which health data must be shared
among ACO participants. With ACOs comes
the challenge associated with the next evolution
of computerization in healthcare, specifically
the move from automating transactions to
improving care delivery via enhanced clinical
intelligence.
We plan to meet these new challenges by leveraging
Alere Analytics to turn the data into
“intelligence.” For example, we will be deploying
a sophisticated rules engine that constantly
“listens” to our aggregated clinical data to
identify when patients have gaps in necessary
and preventive care and predicts when prompt
medical attention is needed to avoid a hospital
readmission or other costly types of care. The
technology platform also includes customizable,
evidence-based care plans that will assist
Virtua’s nurse coordinators and physicians with
decision-making, care documentation and communication
with other providers. The integrated
platform of HIE, near real-time analytics and
computerized care plans will provide necessary
IT support for care coordination across the various
domains of care.
As part of our new program, we will also deploy
500 home-based biometric monitoring devices
that will electronically transmit patients’
blood pressures, weight and other biometrics
into the HIE, making it possible to gather and
react to various health measures in near real-time.
With such functionality in place, caregivers
will be able to better manage patients. If a heart
patient begins to gain weight over a short time
period, for example, a caregiver will contact the
patient and immediately begin to provide coaching
or other needed services.
IT Portfolio
With HIE and various analytical and care-coordination
technologies, Virtua is implementing
the technological capabilities needed in the
years to come, as the entire healthcare industry
undergoes a re-engineering to meet the ever-emerging
requirements of national healthcare
reform and the needs of our patients in our
local markets. Such IT investments bode well
for supporting our strong commitment to our
patients, “Virtua helps you be well, get well and
stay well” and “will be the premiere choice in
health and wellness.”
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